Dabbawala Case Study

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The Dabbawala meal delivery system in Mumbai consists of 5000 individuals called dabbawalas who deliver home-cooked food in tin boxes. This is the traditional system originated in India that consists of picking up the filled dabbas from the households that prepare them and deliver the boxes in the requisite offices.

The Dabbawala achieves very high service performance to the precision of a Six Sigma rating of one mistake in six million deliveries. The critical factors of success of this system is the high level of accuracy, consistency and always on time deliveries that never disappoint the customer. Hence, they have loyal customers and always positive word-of-mouth going around. Additionally, it is a low-cost and very simple operating system …show more content…

They use the existing infrastructure (railways) and low maintenance non-fuel based transportation (bicycles and handcarts) to keep their operating costs low and make it affordable to the mass. With low reliance on technology the dabbawalas have very specific and repetitive tasks that make them very efficient. They avoid all the technology related complexities and paper work, hence thy dedicate all their time to the customer to keep him satisfied. Additionally, the dabbawalas provide a very personalized service and are aware of what their customers value. They don’t overcomplicate the system and only focus on getting the food delivered on time, every day, meaning they meet the needs of the customer 100 percent. Furthermore, the dabbawalas are semi-literate workers that appreciate the simplest things and are very grateful to be part of the delivery system. When they are recruited they ensure that the person is committed to maintain the high quality standards and can maintain a good relationship with the customer. All the dabbawalas are friends or …show more content…

To this point the organization had achieved great success, and the only way to grow was by reaching a new potential market, and to do so it had to be through the use of technology. With the increasing complexities and changing dynamics of the city either they adopt new technologies like motorcycles to replace bikes and be less dependent on the railway system and a platform to take deliveries, or they would be saturated in the market and potentially go out of business. The organization currently had a website for inquiries and promotion but it did not include a payment gateway for online order booking. This would generate income rather than just serve as a publicity portal. The website had already garnered media, corporate and academic interest, even accepted small donations. This was certainly a good head start for the organization to start integrating technology into their system. Hence, I recommend that the English language website be upgraded to accept payments, to answer customer inquiries, and to enroll new customers. This is certainly a way to respond to the external threats facing the organization, take advantage of the resources it has (the website) and exploit the opportunities the business environment. The sophisticated city of Mumbai was awash with cellphones and had widespread computer access. Consequently, it is also wise to recommend a cell phone texting

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